Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is the systemic study of human communication. It studies the interrelationship between thinking, language, and achievement and models best practice to make it available to others.

N stands for “Neuro” – the mind.
L represents “Linguistic” – the language.
P refers to “Programming” – how we put together sequences of actions to achieve goals.

NLP is more than a collection of effective techniques. It is a way of thinking, a frame of mind based on curiosity, exploration and fun.


What is NLP?

The main aspects of NLP are:

1) Develop and maintain an attitude of curiosity. How do people do what they do? Human thinking is not random – there is a structure to be uncovered.
2) Methodology of modeling excellence. NLP explores the ideas and actions of the person to find out how they operate.
3) Visualization.
4) Smart goal setting and achieving.
5) Use of powerful questioning techniques.

NLP starts with you – learning how to guide yourself and influence other in an ethical way. Where is stops is your choice.


How does NLP relate to the business world?

Managers are paid to communicate effectively. This is NLP territory.
• NLP helps managers to understand people and how to motivate them.
• It models best practice so that important skills can be passed on to others.
• It models the business system to see how it can be improved.
• NLP helps managers generate business and personal goals and integrate individual and organizational goals and values.
• NLP teaches skills to make meetings shorter and more productive.
• It gives managers the skills to coach their people.

NLP is becoming increasingly popular in the business world and is being used in many different fields – leadership, sales, management, sports, education. It studies behavior, explores goals, values and motivations.

What can you do with NLP?

• Learn from your own most productive and excellent times so you can be more consistently successful.
• Make meetings more productive and effective and conduct them in a shorter period of time.
• Ask key questions to stop misunderstanding and being misunderstood.
• Be more influential.
• Know how others are thinking and how they reach decisions.
• Gain a greater understanding of yourself and others. Find out what your self-sabotage strategies are and get rid of them.
• Build more rewarding personal and business relationships.
• Develop your intuition by reading non verbal signals.
• Rid yourself of negative emotions – stress, fear and guilt.
• Set goals that are motivating, realistic and worthwhile.
• Be clear about your own values and your boundaries.
• Increase the limits of your senses – get more pleasure from life – be able to see, hear and feel more.
• Overcome present and past fears and stumbling blocks that hold you back
• Change unwanted habits.
• Build a powerful and compelling future for yourself and your business.
• Balance your life in a more satisfying way by dealing with conflicting demands.
• Understand how you think about time and be able to make the best use of it.

Goals are one of the keystones of NLP. Everybody acts in order to achieve something. People may not be doing it very well and may thus not achieve the desired outcome. NLP has a set of principles and tools to measure to ensure that business goals are clear, measurable, challenging and achievable.

NLP also gives insight into individual and organizational values. A lot of businesses have excellent mission and vision statements but somehow these are never able to connect with people’s minds and hearts and thus become hollow statements. Values are the essential keys to motivation and creative work.

What are the ingredients of an effective manager?

• They motivate through values.
• They are purpose driven, rather than problem driven.
• They believe in themselves and their business.
• They balance task and relationship.
• They can tolerate uncertainty and ambiguity.

Where is NLP useful?

For managers, leaders and consultants
• Motivate your people and become a more effective coach.
• Understand, embrace and manage change more successfully.
• Enhance your own leadership style based on what is important to you.

For teachers and trainers
• Be able to manage groups and communicate your ideas more effectively.
• Build confidence in your performance.
• Plan and structure your courses for the best results.
• How to find your own expressive style of teaching.
• How to deal with difficult questions.

For salespeople
• Discover customers’ buying strategies.
• Be able to find out what is really important to customers.
• Work with goals effectively.
• Build more long term relationships with customers.
• Develop more mental resilience.

For doctors, counselors and therapists
• Increase your sensory acuity to understand your client.
• Discover a way of working that is quick and effective.
• Take care of your own emotional state.
• Treat the person and the illness.

Last but not least NLP can be used anywhere you want outstanding and effective communication skills!

to survive in a world of constant change?

Definetely YES!

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust

The world needs a new kind of leader for a new kind of “philanthropic capitalism”. Developing the corporate soul helps businesses rise above the “bottom line of profit maximization and cost cutting” by becoming more service and value-oriented.

The world as we know it is at a crossroads and time has come that human kind must choose between alternatives. The first alternative includes capitalism and business based on exploitation – this the world as we know it – amoral culture of short-term self-interest, profit maximization, emphasis on shareholder value, isolationist thinking, and disregard of long-term consequences. This unhealthy scenario is based on narrow assumptions about human nature and motivation. As a system, it is doomed to fail one probably not so distant day. It has become a voracious monster, which will consume itself if not transformed.

Summary Overview:

• The current ongoing crisis facing capitalism is non-sustainability. Unlimited greed and outdated thought patterns designed for the 18th and 19th century will destroy the 21st if not changed.
• The corporate soul must realign and focus on finding and using meaning, purpose and fundamental values in and through our work.
• In the spirited workplace, private corporations will function more as for profit public service institutions.

A Matter of Intelligence

Intelligence is meant to be the tool with which we cultivate our lives and win control over or co-operation with our environment. But IQ alone won’t access meaning, value and purpose. It measures rational, logical, linear intelligence designed to solve practical or abstract problems. EQ (emotional intelligence) enables us to use feelings to boost and complement our IQ. But SQ (spiritual intelligence) allows us to tap into and use our most fundamental needs. To transcend the crisis created by modern capitalism, businesses have to use the whole brain – IQ, EQ and especially SQ. Spiritual intelligence is the ultimate intelligence needed to elevate the corporate soul.

Why is today’s capitalist thinking unsustainable and damaging?

Bolstered by Darwinian philosophy focusing on “survival of the fittest”, capitalism’s own “laws of existence” (competition, profit maximization, capital accumulation) have locked business-as-usual into a ruthless pursuit of competitive advantage in a world of rapidly diminishing resources.

Reasoning

• The governing belief is that the earth and its resources are there for human consumption and control, ignoring the fact that the earth’s resources are being depleted at warp speed. Future wars will most likely be around water instead of oil.

• Humans always anticipate that the only way of moving forward is through reckless growth.
• Accelerating environmental damage which includes global warming, floods, air pollution, overfishing, deforestation, wasteful water and electricity consumption.

• Inequality between rich and poor nations.

• Too many clueless leaders. Considering making more money as the only motivator.

• Extreme short-term thinking – seen as lack of long-term business perspectives, not enough big-picture visionaries in the corporate and political world, maximizing profits by all means is often the only mantra.

• Overstressed humans who focus primarily on juggling as many tasks as possible, stretching themselves constantly to the limit financially, physically and emotionally.

• Society is bombarded with a flood of new products and services on the market, many of which with questionable use for human kind.

A way out of the dilemma is developing a high SQ

All humans are born with an innate potential for high SQ. It is a basic capacity of the human brain. Encouraging further development of spiritual intelligence in today’s business world the following key criteria can be identified:

• Know yourself – self awareness
• Master yourself – get organized
• Holistic picture – big picture vision
• Compassion
• Foster and celebrate diversity
• Reframing
• Embracing and thriving on change

We all grew up knowing IQ (Intelligence Quotient) was important. Then the world was introduced to EQ (Emotional Quotient) which it seems is a far more accurate indicator of adult success than IQ. The world is already full of high IQ but socially dysfunctional genius individuals. EQ, according to research accounts for more than 85% of exceptional achievement. Studies in this field show that the more complex the task, the more important is one’s EQ. Results of a variety of studies provide us with some stunning figures. While technical skills were necessary, they were hardly sufficient. The differentiators were elements of emotional intelligence displayed through collaboration and teamwork. Harvard professor and leadership guru Warren Bennis claims that in every case of leadership failure he has encountered it is always character flaws and judgment that have led to the problem. Character and judgment are the result of EQ.

The hallmarks of EQ are Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Social Skills. Those with high EQ are motivated, self-disciplined, aspire to excellence, continually seek to perfect their skills to add value. These qualities sustain long term business development and build strong corporate cultures that promote high morale and prevent loss of talent. But there is even more to be learnt and achieved if we are moving into the realms of SQ (Spiritual Quotient). While IQ allows us to think and EQ helps us relate, SQ allows us to do both these things during times of rapid change. IQ & EQ were sufficient in a relatively static world. SQ provides the linkage in times of paradigm shift and increasing chaos.

Those with high SQ have the capacity to question, think creatively, change the rules, work effectively in changing situations by playing with the boundaries, break through obstacles and being innovative. Our SQ encourages us to see the bigger picture, to be co-creators of the world in which we live. Outstanding performers have high IQ, high EQ and high SQ. This makes them alive, dynamic, sociable and innovative.

It is highly unlikely to find many of them in traditional organizations. Traditional organizations, prefer controllable “company soldiers” in the organizational wheel, rather than people who are switched on intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. The addictive rules of organizations heavily discourage those who think outside the box and have the emotional health to want to be their own person.

But how do we develop more SQ?

While IQ allows us to analyze what “is” and EQ helps us to adapt to the world as it changes, it is SQ that has us transform our world into a whole new way of being. The way to develop our IQ is quite different to that which develops our EQ, which is different again to that which develops our SQ. What is exciting is that there are holistic methodologies available that allow us to develop all three simultaneously in ways that enrich our lives and add value. The key is to find, embrace and use such methodologies effectively.

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Wayne Dyer

Leadership

Daniel Pink examines the puzzle of motivation.

Autonomy – Mastery – Purpose

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A Whole New Mind

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